Flying to Buenos Aires

The morning after our visit to the glacier we had a scheduled
flight that we had pre-booked a while back to Buenos Aires. We were skipping a
good portion of the south of Argentina but we had a flight in a month to New
Zealand from Rio de Janeiro which we had to get to. There will always be other
trips that we?ll be able to take to Argentina to see the wonderful cities of
Mendoza, Bariloche and many more.

We woke up at 8 AM and tried calling for a taxi to the
airport but they couldn?t understand Kevin over the phone. We got the owner of
the hostel to help us book our ride. After having packed we double checked we
hadn?t forgotten anything I realised that I didn?t have our plane tickets. I
panicked for a bit, took everything out of my bag once again to remember at the
last minute that we had e-tickets. Yah, I was really bright that morning. We
were waiting for the taxi but it was late and we were starting to worry when
the owner offered to take us the airport in his own car at ˝ the price the taxi
company was asking. We said yes, of course and hopped into the car for the 30
km drive to the airport. We got checked in quickly and headed to the one gate
for the whole airport. It was chaos waiting for our plane as there weren?t any
seats for the 2/3 of the people waiting, as well no one ever knew what flight
was departing. Things were finally sorted and we boarded our plane for the next
step in our trip. We had a stopover in Bariloche but we didn?t have to get off.
We arrived in Buenos Aires 5 hours after we had left.

We collected our bags, walked out of the airport and took a
local bus to the San Juan area of the city. We walked the 6 blocks to the
hostel we had booked a few days earlier. Of course, I?m sure you can see it
coming, the hostel had lost/never received the reservation and they didn?t have
a room for us. This was the last time we were going to use the booking website
we had used in the past. In the long run, we are grateful they didn?t have our
reservation as they called us a taxi and sent us to another which had room for
us called Puerto Limon. This hostel was much nicer, had been open for 4 months,
and had a great vibe. They owners had put a lot of thought into the design and
we fell in love with the place. So, we got checked in which was located in the
San Telmo area known for it?s Parilla (Steakhouses) and Tango dancing. It had a
gritty feel but you could feel the cultural lifeblood of the city in its
streets with its old, lopsided concrete sidewalks, old-fashioned cafes, tango
dancing in its squares, steakhouses, independent fashion designers. It?s was a
great neighbourhood which lulled us into falling in love with it.

That evening, we walked to Plaza Dorrego for supper. It was
7 PM, but to the Argentines it was only snack hour so we were limited in what
we could order. We found a seat at an outdoor café in the small square with
free tango shows. A few patches of rubber were laid on the floor and two
couples dressed in the most beautiful dresses with sky-high heels would dance
the most sensuous dance with a man in full suit and dapper hat. We watched them
for a couple of hours while we ate our gourmet pizza. It was a fantastic
introduction to Buenos Aires. Of course, this being Buenos Aires, we?ve come
to expect strangeness with amazedness. There were a couple of women, who looked
like life was rough, going from table to table begging for food. One was quite
skinny but she had 4-5 year old boy with her who was chubby. The strangeness
came when the mother ate everything that was offered to her but didn?t share
any with her son, who was busy dancing on his own in the middle of the square
to the tango music playing over speakers. Really cute! When she was done
eating, she called him over, sat him on her lap and started to breastfeed him.
No wonder she was so slim, she was still breastfeeding after at least 4 years
and he was chubby from all the milk. So weird!!